If, as Barnett Newman asserted, the history of Modern painting is that of “the struggle against the catalogue” then lately the catalogue seems to be winning. At first glance, this victory is confirmed by the publication that accompanies this exhibition: three large volumes, collected in a single casing, with a photograph on the cover showing Gerhard Richter in his studio, posing in profile near one of his recent works. It is a calm and clear image, full of level-headed authority. Here, the painter is not at work, but at rest, as if meditative; the painting is finished. The three books inside

In this exhibition, Fariba Hajamadi worked with the conjuncture of violence and eroticism, perfecting her mode of hybrid composition—montages in which she juxtaposes different photographs taken of museum spaces. But for the first time, Hajamadi’s intervention was extended to include the gallery space. She covered each wall with wallpaper whose lively colored, repetitive patterns (like toile de Jouy) contrasted with the enigma of the sepia-toned photographs transferred onto wood. Thus, each wall held imagery that is both decorative and obsessive: scenes of executions and rape, in a series taken

It was the model rather than the photographer who came to the opening of this exhibit. She was there from the very beginning, alone, studying the images—her images—from a distance, with a mix of intensity and apparent satisfaction. Her hair was slightly longer now, and her body, so very naked and vulnerable on the wall, was enveloped, protected literally from neck to toe. But the face was the same, and her presence only served to confirm (if such a confirmation was necessary) that these photographs are the result of no ordinary collaboration.

The model, we are told, is a friend of the photographer,